Enough With Your Poppycock, Frasier, Lilith Has Returned.

After a decade long hiatus, Lilith Fair is set to return with an 18-city tour next year. A few cities have been announced (Vancouver, Toronto, Chicago, New York and Los Angeles) and dates and further details have yet to be announced. I, for one, am very curious about it's return and excited about the possibility of a really awesome lineup for women.
The time is perfect for it's return. Now, women in music, are getting more press and women, themselves, are branching off into every genre of music possible and with some amazing results. Where as 10 years ago, a Lilith Fair lineup would've consisted of mostly singer-songwriters with a few comtemporary R&B and Pop-Rock groups or Pretenders thrown in, now you can have wide assortment of Rock, Pop, R&B, Punk and whatever else. It's not to say this could not have happen then, it's just more prominent now.

With this prominence, you're starting to see artists like Neko Case, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Rachael Yamagata on Billboard charts. You're reading more about artists like The Coathangers and Jenny Owen Youngs. This is a good thing and the reason why the possibility of Lilith Fair lineup for 2010 can and should be a huge deal.

We've all seen Sheryl Crow already and the Indigo Girls. Let's escape the Lilith Fair of old or at least, merge it with what should be the Lilith Fair of new. Let's watch Sarah McLachlan headline a festival featuring Neko Case, A Camp, theSTART, Rachael Yamagata, Cat Power, Mary J. Blige and Bat For Lashes. Thrown in something awesome like Kim Gordon and Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth doing an acoustic set of nothing but songs sung by Gordon and you would have such an amazing festival. This is the Lilith Fair we need to see, something so out there and different yet very comtemporary without feeling like it's specifically aiming for one type of a female audience and/or age group.

I realize that this post may sound or come off as sexist which isn't the intent at all. This is just my way of saying this is a golden opportunity to break so many young, impressionable girls away from the grip of Miley Cyrus and whatever manufactured Pop star du jour they are usually presented with. This is a chance to be bold and daring or as Jenny Lewis would want to, "rise up with fists." Lilith Fair do not present possibilities and potential. Instead, unleashed your awesomeness and proof that great doesn't depend upon your level of testosterone but on your talent and ability as a performer.

Update (December 11, 2009)
The initial lineup has been announced and it is:
Sarah McLachlan
Mary J. Blige
Sheryl Crow
Erykah Badu
Colbie Caillat
Ke$ha
Tegan and Sara
Miranda Lambert
Metric
A Fine Frenzy
Indigo Girls
Emmylou Harris
Chairlift
Jill Scott
Sugarland
Brandi Carlile
Sara Bareilles
Zee Avi
The Weepies

Some nice choices but as expected, it is a very safe list...very safe and is missing the excitement it should have had and could have possibly had. Here's hoping that Erykah Badu and Miranda Lambert do what they do best and loudly or if nothing else, team up for a set.